peejman

I got the mower and the fridge. The fridge died about a month after closing, but I'm still using the mower 10 yrs later. Win some, lose some. In general, houses haven't been a great investment for me. Just bad timing I suppose. We lived in our first house for 7 yrs and I made 0.7% on it when I sold it, which didn't touch what we spent on improvements. We bought the current house and immediately spent $20k on renovations and have probably spent that much again in the 10 yrs since then (most of which was a new roof and HVAC). Only recently have I gained hope I could at least get my money back. If I'd had to sell it 5 yrs ago, i probably would've lost $50k. But it's still better than renting.

Honestly, with 3.5% down... keep saving. I wouldn't expect you to get a very good rate with that little down regardless of your credit. I'd be really surprised if you can avoid pmi at 3.5%. But, do some mortgage shopping and get pre-approved through at least 2 lenders prior to making any offers. As mentioned, figure out what payment you can afford and stick to it. Being "house poor" is no fun at all. Owning a house is very expensive. Whatever you find, you'll spend thousands on all sorts of little things in the first year or two. Stuff that breaks always costs hundreds, and sometimes thousands, to fix. Be very wary of home warranties, and read the fine print thoroughly. A lot of them don't cover anything that normally breaks. Don't sign a contract with a realtor, and don't be afraid to drop one and get another if you're not happy. They work off commission so their job is to sell you the most expensive house you'll buy. Don't get talked into something you really can't afford. Location, location, location. After that, build quality, build quality, build quality. Research local builders, who's good and who's not. The realtor should pretty well know already, and should also tell you who built every house you look at. Get a home inspection from a known good inspector. Be there for the inspection, ask lots of questions, and expect to get dirty. Everything is negotiable.

Mmmmm.... little feller, little feller.

Weather goob said Gatlinburg only got 1.3" of rain compared to 5.5" at spots in the valley. If that's accurate, the danger of more fires is still quite real.

You mean in-line with the bore and on center? Again, that's easy for any decent machinist.

So you're saying it's perfect for getting the wife tipsy. Duly noted.

FTFY. Whether or not there actually is a policy in place, and if so, whether or not it's adequate to cover the loss (without lawyers having to get involved) is the question.

It'll be tonite or tomorrow before we'll know. It certainly should slow/stop any further spread.

It's possible the construction might be covered under their existing homeowners, assuming they informed their policy holder of the construction in process.

We've saved a small variety of seeds for the first time this year. Time will tell how that works out.

Cool. I got to shoot a friend's Dad's Luger a long time ago. Other than raining hot brass, it was exceedingly cool.

Dayum!

You don't need a gunsmith per se, any decent machinist can do this. Drilling and tapping isn't rocket surgery.

Parkerized maybe? There's lots of options. Just the barrel or the whole gun?

I never said I found pleasure in it, and my horse is really low. I did say, more than once, that I felt bad for those who've lost their homes. That's a terrible thing for all of them. I'm indifferent to the loss of the businesses. They should all have insurance and can be rebuilt.

Yeah, I pretty much do. I used to enjoy going up there, but wanton commercialism has made what was once a quaint, beautiful vacation spot look like a run-down subdivision. It's depressing driving through there every winter and seeing dozens more crappy chalets perched precariously on the slopes. I've stayed in a number of those chalets through the years and most of them were total junk. I refused to stay in more than one because I saw blatant code violations or structural issues and got the impression a strong fart would blow a few of them down. Again, I feel bad for the families who've lived there a long time and lost their homes. Lots of them are there because they were forcibly removed when the park was formed.

We got a new VP a few months before the Christmas party a few years ago. He had the "shady used car salesman" vibe down. One of my friends was there with his girlfriend (now wife) and the half-drunk married veep started blatantly hitting on her, right in front of him. Veep says to friend, "you're lucky I'm not 10yrs younger because I'd be all over that." Friend look veep dead in the eye and says, "you're lucky I'm not 10 yrs younger because I'd break your f-ing nose just for saying that." Veep just kinda smiled and wandered off. A few years before that there was the girl who got sloppy drunk, kept falling out of her dress, puked on the dance floor, and had to be carried off. Prior job... engineering department big boss decides he needs to say something nice about each of his employees (about 30 people) in front of their families, only he's half drunk and totally unprepared. Not only could he not remember what some of his people did, he also couldn't remember their names. "Hey there... uh... man... uh... thanks so much for your hard work on ... uh... that ... uh... project you've been busy with... yeah...". It was horrible. Less than half the people showed up the next year, and they cancelled it after that.

It's bad. I've not heard of any serious injuries, but lots of stuff is burning. I did see reports of wind gusts up to 74mph. I believe the rain has slowed it down a bit, but it's not going to do much for the structure fires, and the wind is supposed to pick back up this afternoon. I won't lose any sleep over the businesses on the strip and all the crappy chalets, best thing that could happen is burning some of them to the ground. But there's a ton of very old and very beautiful houses hidden in the hollers all around there, losing them would be very unfortunate.

What sort of finish does it have now and what's wrong with it?

Thanks. I suspected that was the case. It's possible I'd be in both regions 3 and 4.... the regulations are entirely too confusing. I think they're trying to drive people to buy the sportsman just as CYA because they know the regs are convoluted. Good way to increase revenue too.

Question.... If a person wanted to bow hunt all season, can they do so with only an archery license? Or is a gun license required to bow hunt during gun season?

Mmmm.... now I'm craving hoppin John.

If you don't have access to a welder for the angle iron, you can build a frame with iron pipe and attach plywood to that.

This will be the first year in a long time without smoked turkey, or smoked anything for that matter. I can't run my smoker with the burn bans in place here. But Mom's making stuffed mushrooms and my wife made apple pie, so I'll survive.